


A Matter of Time

by SleepyRedInk



Category: Death Note, Death Note: Another Note
Genre: Again, Cheesy, Drama, Lovers but not really, M/M, So Cliche I'm disappointed in myself, Sorry but Matt dies anyway, Suicide mention, its complicated, otherwise canon compliant, slight canon divergance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 05:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8652889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyRedInk/pseuds/SleepyRedInk
Summary: Beyond notices unusual changes in Matt's life span and tries to prevent the inevitable.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A Birthday-Present to a Dear friend of mine x3  
> I'm not really sure if I'm happy with it, but I'm getting back into writing again so its ok for now I think xD  
> Not Beta-read, sadly x.x

Obviously, everything in life changed.

But the changes he witnessed lately were... concerning.

Not exactly changes, fortunately, but it seemed to only be a matter of time.

This fact was what put Beyond Birthday on alert over the last few weeks.

The first time it happened, he thought it was nothing to really care about. A call Matt received (and, oddly enough, ignored) and - coincidentally, it seemed – the numbers above his head dropped by one or two digits. It wasn't something Beyond payed more attention to, since this would occasionally happen to every human. One doesn't live forever after all. It seemed like a normal Countdown of Matt's Life span. He would grow old, something between 83 and 84, so this minor change was natural.

In hindsight, this probably started everything.

The rather frequent wavering of Matt's numbers that happened from there on was anything but normal, and Beyond had already witnessed something similar before (though he tried to not think about it).

 

They, more or less, lived with each other for a few years now. Beyond, who used the occurring trouble with Kira to fake his death and get out of prison six years ago, and Matt, who left Wammy's for obvious reasons, somehow managed to find each other in LA.

Somehow, they stayed around each other.

Somehow, Beyond found himself staying more in Matt's apartment than his own.

Somehow, it worked for them like this.

Now the black haired man sat on the couch and quietly watched Matt sitting on his desk in front of a laptop, staring at his cellphone from the corner of his eye.

“Are you alright?”, he asked carefully, despite their usually sarcasm-loaded, cynical, almost relentless relationship.

Matt seemed to snap out of his thoughts, and looked at him in slight confusion before nodding. “I'm good, just a little tired...”, he replied and turned towards his laptop again, tapping his fingers across the keyboard. It was not hard for Beyond to tell that something bothered him. He got up and disappeared into the kitchen, only to come back with a cup of black coffee, placing it next to Matt. “If you won't tell me, that's fine, but don't lie to me...”, the older male mumbled as he leaned against the desk.

Matt said nothing, but took the mug and drank the warm liquid, his tense features relaxing a little. When neither of them would break the silence, Beyond went to the couch again, but froze halfway when he caught Matt's quietly spoken words.

“Mello tries to contact me...”

Mello?

He and this albino-boy called Near were 'in charge' of the Kira-Investigation since L died. But Mello had refused to work with Near and left the orphanage, that's what Matt had told him.

Obviously, he wouldn't be able to do this all by himself, so he most likely had... 'company'.

It took mere seconds for Beyond to conclude what this meant.

Mello wanted to get Matt into the Investigations as well.

It all made sense in an instant.

Matt's thoughtful behavior.

Even more, _his Numbers..._

 

_Kira would get him killed._

 

He turned to Matt and wanted to say something, anything, to prevent this from happening, but was cut off by the buzzing of Matt's cellphone. He saw the Redhead hesitating, thinking about whether he should pick up or not.

“Don't pick up”, Beyond said, reflexively, and received a questioning look from Matt. “Why?”, he asked, but instead of an answer, Beyond pulled him up from his chair by the wrist and into a passionate kiss that was almost impossible to left unrequited. He hoped that Matt wouldn't notice that his actions were more rushed than usual, but right now, everything that would stop Matt from picking up the phone seemed a good idea. “You've ignored me enough over the last days, you should happily make up for this”, he whispered teasingly and already shoved his Hand beneath Matt's shirt, pulling the younger male more and more towards the bedroom.

The buzzing of the phone stopped, Matt followed without complain, and Beyond was sure this should do the trick until he found another way to keep Matt's life span at it's normal length.

 

Waking up alone the next morning was nothing that usually bothered him, but the empty bed, along with the biting smell of burned plastic and metal made him jump up, put on clothes as fast as possible and storm out of the room.

The living room looked cleaner than ever, but also empty, if not for the bag in the floor and chunks of what used to be laptops all over the table, desk and couch.

He _knew_ what this meant, but tried to think of another logical explanation.

He found none.

When Matt came out of the kitchen (obviously to burn and destroy any sort of chip or hard drive that could lead back to Matt, yet was useless to him), instead of looking at his face, Beyond immediately looked above his head.

His heart stopped at what he saw.

His life span hadn't only decreased a little, whole numbers were  _completely missing,_ cutting down his remaining years to merely a few months, if even.

Like this, Matt wouldn't even reach his twenties.

“So it actually changed, huh?”, the relaxed voice forced him back into reality. Of course Matt knew. They had known each other for years, and Matt was smart. He had understood the ways of Beyond's eyes early. _“You barely look into peoples eyes, but above them. You see something we don't, right?”,_ he said back then. Yet they never spoke about it.

“I have a few favors to ask you...”, Matt continued, walking over to one of his bags. But Beyond didn't answer, unable to speak.

“Listen, on the nightstand is a little envelope. It contains my Bank card and a note with every necessary information you need for it. I won't need it anymore, but... there is still a lot of Money from my inheritance. Feel free to use it however you like, it should be enough to make a living of it for some time. If you don't need it though, in the drawer is another envelope. Put it in there and afterwards into the package beneath the bed. The package contains hard drives that are filled with all kinds of information I collected over the past years, but they are useless to me, so I want to get them to Near. In two weeks an acquaintance of mine will come here and bring the package to Wammy's, so Roger can give it to Near. That way nobody will find out that you are still alive. That's everything, the rest of my Stuff is already in the car”, he grabbed his bag and walked over to the door. His Hand already on the door knob, Matt turned around and smiled at Beyond, who was staring at him in pure disbelieve. “Sorry for leaving so quickly... I'll see that I find a way to contact you without Mello noticing...”

Taking a deep breath, Matt turned around and opened the door, only for it to be slammed close almost immediately by another hand. Beyond stood behind him, keeping the door closed with his hand. “I  _will not_ let you go!”, he whispered, his voice somewhat raspy, “I won't let you run into your demise!”

A shiver ran down Matt's spine when he felt the warm breath stroke over his neck and he turned around to face the older man. “I will fix it this time!”, Beyond's fingernails slightly scratched over the wooden door as he spoke, and they both knew what he was talking about.

A.

Beyond couldn't change his remaining life span, leaving him unable to prevent his suicide.

And here was Matt, trying to run into his own certain death, expecting him to just watch.

No. There was no way in Hell that Beyond would allow this to happen a second time.

Matt simply kept smiling at him, put down the bag and gently put his hand on the other Man's arm that still blocked the door.

“You can't”, he said softly, moving his free hand to Beyond's waist. He couldn't deny that the urge to touch the other male for the probably last time was quite overwhelming.

“Let me try! I-”, Beyond snapped, but was cut off when Matt leaned forward to kiss him.

Parting their lips ever so slightly, he whispered “Don't try. We both know that that's not how it works. It never depended on my decision, did it?” before pulling him into another kiss.

But who could tell?

Neither of them.

 

Pressing Matt against the Door, Beyond slightly leaned against him. They stayed there in silence for a moment, just enjoying each others presence, being as close as they would never again be.

“Don't go...”, the older Man breathed out. He always expected Mello to call out for Matt, and Matt would obviously help Mello - it has always been the two of them after all. It was more surprising that Matt took so long to answer him.

Realization slowly sank in.

Matt would unavoidably die.

In order to change that, Kira should have never even appeared.

And neither of them could change this now.

 

Matt bit his lip. If he would stay any longer, it would only be harder for him to leave. And it took all of his strength to go now, and not stay longer, maybe for another shared night even. He wanted, he really did. But he couldn't.

Taking a deep breath, he collected every bit of composure he had and slightly pushed Beyond away looking him in the eyes. “Getting sentimental, are we?”, he grinned after swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.

Beyond could easily tell that it was a forced grin, and that Matt tried to make it easy for them, yet Beyond couldn't bring up more than a half-hearted smirk that reached his eyes as much as Matt's grin did.

Not at all.

“Don't get cocky...”, he replied, but there was no hint of their usual mockery.

 

It was strange. They never showed much affection to each other, it was always simple between them, the feelings they shared for each other nothing more than a close friendship that originated years ago. At least that's what they thought.

Now here they stood, clinging onto each other like the lovers they weren't.

Beyond let his gaze wander over Matt's features and finally over his head where his real Name and life span were, only visible for him.

The numbers didn't change. No wavering, not the slightest blur.

It was set. There was nothing he could do about it but accepting it.

_Again._

 

Matt leaned his Head on the taller males shoulder and comfortingly breathed a soft kiss against his neck before pulling away completely.

Picking up his bag, Matt opened the door, looking over his shoulder a last time.

“Good bye...”

The door closed and Beyond was alone, in an empty apartment that wasn't his, an apartment that suddenly seemed so much colder and darker than in every prison cell.


End file.
